Students spend between six and nine hours per week outside of class learning vocabulary, reading, completing writing exercises and compositions, working on pronunciation, preparing oral presentations, and working with the multimedia files that accompany the text.

VI. Catalog Course Description

This course combines review with new and more complex language usage than were studied in ITAL201. It continues to emphasize intermediate-level speaking, listening comprehension, idiomatic usage, and practice in writing. An Italian cultural reader focuses on Italian history and culture.

VII. Required Course Content and Direction

Learning Goals:

Course

Students will:

acquire and demonstrate increasing competence in the four language skills: speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing;

recognize and respond appropriately and with increasing detail to the most common spoken situations;

demonstrate ability to write increasingly complex sentences in Italian; and

explain an increasing number of aspects of life in the Italian-speaking countries.

Planned Sequence of Topics and/or Learning Activities:

Dialects
Media, newspapers, and television
The European Union and Italian political scene
Italian-Americans and the experience of immigration

Cultural contexts

Italian films contrasted with Hollywood,
Popular and classical music and the tradition of the cantautoriAnalyze Italian drama and short fiction
Examine Italian regional conflicts and their historical background
Contrasts between Italy and the perception of Italy in the U.S.
The European Union and the future of Italy

Assessment Methods for Core Learning Goals:

Course

Students

take quizzes and tests;

complete assignments, such as short compositions and grammatical exercises;

Cultural Perspectives: Students take quizzes/tests or complete sections of quizzes/tests which examine the cultural topics presented in the course and in which they compare, contrast, analyze, and/or defend differing world views and practices of some Italian-speaking people.

International, Gender, and/or Minority Perspectives: Students take quizzes/tests or complete sections of quizzes/tests in which they articulate similarities and differences in the various cultures of the world and demonstrate familiarity with the skills necessary to make informed judgments.